Frank A. Parker, D. O. Among the different recognized schools of the healing art, the science of osteopathy has undoubtedly made notable progress within the last decade. Its principles have been found to be so sound and its cures of the ills of the human body so remarkably successful that its practitioners can show lists of satisfied patients each year increasing, from every walk of life. Among the leading osteopathic practitioners at Champaign no one is better known or more thoroughly relied on than Dr/ Frank A. Parker, who has been engaged in the practice of his science here since 1906.
Frank A. Parker was born in Ford County, Illinois, November 6, 1866. His parents were Henry J. and Susanna (Walton) Parker, the former of whom was born in New York and the latter in Ohio. Both are now deceased. The father was a merchant and also was a farmer in Indiana.
The youngest of a family of twelve children, Frank A. Parker had no exceptional advantages in youth but grew to the age of eighteen years as a farm hand during the summer seasons, attending the common schools during the winters. This educational training was later supplemented with a course of instruction at Valparaiso, Indiana. He was ambitious and an agricultural life as a finality did not appeal to him. Therefore he went to Chicago, the great city that has been largely built up through the brains and strength of the country boys who have sought and found opportunity there, and for three years he. was connected with one of the great express companies of Chicago, in the capacity of bookkeeper, in the meanwhile keeping wide awake for a better position. An opportunity finally came and he accepted a humble position with the Hammond Packing Company at Hammond, Indiana, with the promise of promotion if deserving, and there continued, rising step by step until he had become assistant purchasing agent. This rise represented nine years of such close and strenuous work that his health gave signs of failing and he found it advisable to sever his relations with the company in order to engage in some work that would give him outdoor exercise.
In the spring of 1904 Doctor Parker took up the business of writing insurance in Champaign. In the meanwhile his attention had been called to the success which was attending the practice of osteopathy, in some special cases, and this led to increasing interest and finally to a determination to apply himself seriously to the study of the science. Therefore, in the fall of 1904, he enrolled himself as a student in the American School of Osteopathy, the fountain head, at Kirksville, Missouri, where he continued until he was graduated in 1906. He returned then to Champaign and opened an office and has been in active practice here ever since, his remarkable success testifying to his thorough knowledge as well as to the merits of his school of healing.
Doctor Parker was married August 20, 1898, to Miss Clara Mashino, who was born in Kansas, and they have two children, Griffith H. and Ruby Maurine. Doctor and Mrs. Parker are members of the First Baptist Church. Their home is in a very pleasant part of the city, their residence being at No. 133 West Park Avenue.
Although an independent voter, Doctor Parker is by no means an indifferent citizen; on the other hand, zealously working for city improvement, especially along sanitation lines, and for the general moral uplift that none so well realize the desperate need of as does the physician. He leads a busy and useful life, finding in his profession a congenial career, hence has but little leisure to give to social or fraternal activities, although for many years he has been a valued member of the local lodge of Knights, of Pythias,